The Oldest Grey Gneisses and Tonalite-Trondhjemite Granodiorites in the Fennoscandian Shield: ID-TIMS and SHRIMP Data

Genesis of the oldest continental crust retains a marked trace in the Earth’s evolution over its 4.5 Ga history. Despite ample isotope data on the role of the continental crust in the Earth’s evolution, there has been much debate on the origin of grey gneisses and tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorites (TTG). Precise U-Pb (ID-TIMS) and SHRIMP data on single zircon for paragneisses and TTG (3158.2 ± 8.2 Ma) have indicated the Central-Kola and Belomorian (White Sea) megablocks of the Fennoscandian Shield to be 3.16 Ga and 3.70 Ga, respectively. The newly obtained ages of zircon from these megablocks indicate the origin of the discrete continental crust to be 3.16 and 3.70 Ga. It is close to the Nordsim zircon data on the Siurua TTG (Finland), which are 3.45 and 3.73 Ga in the core. The new summarized data on the Earth’s oldest rocks (basement and continental crust) indicate the younger age of the rocks in the Fennoscandian Shield as compared to those in Australia (Kronendonk et al., 2019).